The director who took over 'Deadpool 2' talks about living up to the first movie's success

Director
David Leitch is known best right now for being half of the team
that created the surprise hit, "John Wick," but expect to hear
his name more for the next year.
The stuntman-turned-director has two major movies coming up:
first is the Charlize Theron Cold War spy movie, "Atomic Blonde"
(opening July 28), then he'll follow that with the highly
anticipated "Deadpool 2," the sequel to the box office hit from
2016 that starred Ryan Reynolds playing the unique Marvel
character.

Leitch took on the second Deadpool movie after the director of
the original, Tim Miller, left last October over "creative
differences." Currently shooting "Deadpool 2," Leitch said
he's trying to keep focused and not get caught up in the hype
around the project.

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"You can't deny the expectation," Leitch told Business Insider,
while doing press for the release of "Atomic Blonde," when asked
if he feels any pressure to deliver as big or bigger than the
first movie. "There's such an incredibly passionate following,
which I'm grateful for to be involved in it. But at the end of
the day, I've been working on films for 20 years, we're in the
creative process right now and I'm just focused on that. It feels
like we know what to deliver. Ryan knows Deadpool like the back
of his hand and we're in a really good place."

caption

David Leitch.

source

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

Miller's departure from the sequel was
reportedly due to him not seeing eye-to-eye with Reynolds about
the scope of the project. Miller wanted to go bigger with story
and ideas while Reynolds, along with screenwriters Rhett Reese
and Paul Wernick, wanted to stay close to the original's $60
million budget and have lots of raunchy material.

The original earned the biggest box office opening ever for an
R-rated movie with $132.4 million and a worldwide box office
total of $783.1 million.
With Reynolds as the face of the franchise, the success or
failure of the sequel is placed on his shoulders.

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But that's what's impressed Leitch the most since coming on
board, how connected Reynolds is to the demented persona of the
"Merc With A Mouth."

"He was made for this role and the character is made for him,"
said Leitch of Reynolds as Deadpool. "They are one, let's say it
that way."